natural gas

America’s energy mix is undergoing a period of rapid change. The way we generate electricity in this country looks dramatically different than it did just a decade ago, as wind and solar have matured and

A subsidiary of MDU Resources Group on February 19 said it plans to close three of its coal-fired units at power plants in Montana and North Dakota. Montana-Dakota Utilities said it would partly replace the lost generation with a new simple-cycle gas-fired unit at the North Dakota site. The company on Tuesday said a biannual […]

The technology group Wärtsilä has been awarded a contract to deliver a combined heat and power engine power plant (CHP) to Dresden, Germany. The facility has been ordered by DREWAG, Dresden’s local utility company, and will be delivered by Wärtsilä on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis. Wärtsilä will also maintain the plant under […]

In a letter addressed to Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) CEO Bill Johnson, Kentucky Gov. Matthew G. Bevin said it “would be a huge mistake” to permanently shut down Paradise Unit 3—the last operating coal unit at the Paradise site in Muhlenburg County, Kentucky. According to the governor, “the impact on our economy and our region’s […]

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla., Jan. 2, 2019—The new year brought a new source of cleaner, more efficient power to the Carolinas, when four new communities began receiving power from NTE Energy. January 1 marked the beginning of 20-year power purchase agreements between NTE and the North Carolina communities of Concord and Kings Mountain, and the South […]

EDF Inks Agreement for O&M Services at UAE Nuclear Plant. French nuclear power plant operator EDF will operate and maintain the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) under a

Cheap natural gas and social pressure to reduce carbon emissions give gas-fired power plants and renewable energy resources a competitive advantage over traditional coal and nuclear generation. Energy storage

The Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station began commercial operation on Dec. 21, the latest natural gas-fired facility to enter the PJM market. The 940-MW Tenaska plant, located near Smithton in South Huntingdon Township in Westmoreland County in southwest Pennsylvania, was built in just more than two years, though its planning and permitting process took several years […]

POWER-GEN International kicked off on December 4 with a keynote presentation focused on evolving power generation schemes and changing business models. Gregory Lee, commission president with Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC), the municipally owned public utility that provides water and electric service to Orlando, Florida, and portions of other nearby areas, opened the conference by providing […]

Xcel Energy said it will buy a natural gas-fired power plant in Minnesota from Southern Power, a subsidiary of Southern Co. The $650 million deal for the Mankato Energy Center puts Xcel in charge of a facility from which it has purchased power since the plant’s first unit came online in 2006. A second unit […]

Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) last week told state regulators it plans to retire four coal-fired units at its Wheatfield plant by 2023, a coal-fired unit in Michigan City by 2028, and increase its generation from renewables as part of its “Your Energy, Your Future” initiative. The company’s latest Integrated Resource Plan filed on October […]

Duke Energy has brought the first power block of its new $1.5 billion combined cycle gas plant in Citrus County, Florida, online. Duke said the facility located north of Crystal River—an area long known as home to the now-closed Crystal River Nuclear Plant—is among the largest combined cycle projects in the country, and it is […]

Iraq signed a memorandum of understanding on October 15 to develop power plants in the country with General Electric (GE). The Financial Times on October 18 said the $15 billion deal was brokered after senior officials in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump warned Iraq that relations with the U.S. would be threatened if Iraq […]

Natural gas combined cycle, wind, and residential solar photovoltaic technologies may be the least-expensive way to generate power across a wide swathe of the U.S., an interactive map published and recently updated by the University of Texas (UT) at Austin’s Energy Institute shows.  The interactive chart (Version 1.4.0, retrieved on October 4, 2018), first published […]

Spurred by the shale gas revolution, natural gas’s stunning rise to dominate the U.S. power profile has been echoed by a number of countries, particularly in the Middle East. In Europe, where domestic natural gas production is actually in decline—and consensus is that shale gas won’t likely play a major role on the continent—natural gas […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggests that if states fully implement the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule—which it proposed in August 2018 to replace the 2015 Clean Power Plan—by 2025, U.S. power sector carbon dioxide emissions could be about 34% below 2005 levels. At the end of 2016, they had fallen 24%, and by the end […]

A report this week from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows coal-fired power was still the major source of generation on a state-by-state basis in 2017, though natural gas-fueled electricity production slightly outpaced coal overall The EIA’s report, published September 10, said 18 states relied on coal for the bulk of their power generation […]

New natural gas-fired power plants and wind farms are part of Egypt’s strategy to increase the country’s power generation by at least 50%. It began delivering on that plan in July as it brought three

An executive with the AES Shady Point coal-fired power plant in Oklahoma said the facility could close as soon as January after being notified its power purchase agreement (PPA) will not be extended. Oklahoma Gas & Electric Co. (OG&E) this month said it will not execute another five-year extension of a PPA between the two […]

The Trump administration has extended a potential lifeline to coal-fired power plants with its Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. Now the debate is about how much the plan will actually help coal generation. Energy analysts and other industry experts who spoke with POWER on August 28 say the new rule, which would give individual states the […]

The Trump administration’s Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule announced August 21 calls for coal-fired power plants to meet state-designed performance standards, most notably focused on increases in heat rate and overall efficiency for individual generating stations. Energy experts speaking at the MEGA Symposium in Baltimore, Maryland, on August 22 agreed it’s a goal worth pursuing. […]

The possible new operator of the largest coal-fired power plant in the western U.S. told Arizona regulators this week the company would run the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) at less than half its installed generation capacity in order to maintain profitability. An official for Illinois-based Middle River Power (MRP) also said the plant would operate […]

A New York Supreme Court judge on August 15 said Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) can resume startup tests at its new natural gas-fired power plant in Wawayanda. The decision Wednesday from Judge Roger D. McDonough came one day after CPV sued New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). CPV is seeking an injunction allowing it […]

A report from POLITICO says the Trump administration’s rollback of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP) would give individual states more leeway to set their own rules governing emissions from power plants. POLITICO, which covers politics and policy both in the U.S. and internationally, said its review of a draft document, and information from a […]

An Indiana consumer protection agency has told state regulators they should reject Vectren Corp.’s plan to build a new natural gas-fired power plant in the state. Vectren wants the plant to replace four of the utility’s retiring coal-fired units. Indiana’s Office of Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC) on August 13 said it completed a five-month legal […]

A natural gas-fired power plant in New York state that planned to ramp up to full operations this month has been denied an air quality permit from state officials. Competitive Power Ventures’ (CPV’s) Valley Energy Center in Wawayanda, located in Orange County north of New York City, is in the final testing and commissioning phase, […]

MAN Energy Solutions has been chosen as the solution provider for two power plants in Bangladesh with a total of 15 MAN engines to boost energy generation capacities in the rapidly developing Asian country. The first plant is currently being erected in the country’s Chittagong District on the eastern bank of Karnaphuli River and is […]

Horizontal drilling technology and fracking techniques have created a natural gas revolution in the U.S. The future looks bright for gas-fired power generation but there are three potential storm clouds that

NRG Energy will not restart its Dunkirk power plant in western New York, with the company on July 11 saying the cost to reconnect the facility to the state’s electric grid prohibits reopening the retired coal-fired plant as a natural gas-fueled facility. David Gaier, an NRG spokesman, told POWER the project’s increased costs, along with needed […]

GE Power and the government of Bangladesh on July 11 announced two major power generation deals, with GE part of joint ventures involving power plants along with oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals. Bangladesh is investing in energy infrastructure to reduce its reliance on imported LNG for energy production. About 30% of the country’s […]